In constructing dwelling houses and other small buildings, it is a common practice to use large wood beams as floor, ceiling or roof joists or supports. Generally such beams are formed of solid wood having nominal cross-sectional dimensions on the order of 2.times.6, 4.times.6, 4.times.8, 4.times.10 inches and the like. Ordinarily, said beams are rectangular in cross-section and are arranged with their height dimensions being greater than their width dimensions.
Because of increased demand, the availability of such type wood beams has decreased, and the prices have increased. Thus, the invention herein is concerned with fabricating a truss-like beam from an assembly of smaller cross-section, less expensive, wood chords interconnected with metal struts or webs.
In the past, fabricated trusses have been utilized in building constructions, particularly for roof supports. An example of such a truss, which utilizes parallel chords of wood, with interconnecting web units or struts, is illustrated in my U.S. Pat. No. 4,002,116 which was granted Jan. 11, 1977 for an "Apparatus for Forming Trusses" and also in my U.S. Pat. No. 4,078,352, granted Mar. 14, 1978 for a "Truss-Web Connector".
The fabricated truss construction of my above mentioned patents is a simplification of, and a considerable improvement over, prior fabricated trusses which are formed of wood chords and metal web units or struts and which, for example, are illustrated in various forms and styles in U.S. Pat. No. 3,025,577 to Jureit, issued Mar. 20, 1962, U.S. Pat. No. 3,416,283 to Sanford issued Dec. 17, 1968, U.S. Pat. No. 3,651,612 to Schmidt issued Mar. 28, 1972, U.S. Pat. No. 3,748,809 to Jackson, issued July 31, 1973 and Swiss Pat. No. 306,573 to Kampf, issued Apr. 30, 1955. The fabricated truss-type constructions of these prior patents have not been utilized in the past in sizes and shapes useful as, or economically feasible for use as, replacements for conventionally used wood beams. Although the fabricated truss of my above mentioned earlier U.S. Pat. No. 4,078,352 more readily may be used for larger beam sizes, the construction for beam use is relatively expensive. The fabricated trusses of the other mentioned patents, for all practical purposes, are too high to successfully compete with or serve as replacements for wood beams.
Consequently, more recently I have developed a truss-type beam construction which is disclosed in my U.S. patent application Ser. No. 893,317, filed Apr. 3, 1978, and identified as a "Composite Construction Beam". The fabricated truss-like beam of such application is economically feasible as a replacement for wood beams in competitive size ranges. However, it is desirable to still further reduce costs and to provide a structure with increased strength and, therefore, which will support greater loads. Thus, the invention of this present application relates to certain improvements in the struts or web units used in fabricating truss-like beams which increase beam stengths and allowable loads and permit reduced costs of fabrication, so as to make such beams even more competitive with solid wood beams.